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Red Velvet Cake with Ermine Frosting

Red velvet cake with ermine frosting is the red velvet cake of the good old days. It’s not weighed down with heavy cream cheese but paired with the most delicate whipped ermine frosting. The combination is delicious!

(Oldie But Goodie: This post first appeared on The Unlikely Baker on January 27, 2016. I’ve given it fresh pictures and an updated recipe. Enjoy!)

I used to have a love-hate relationship with red velvet cake. I loved to eat it. But it hated me. I’ve failed at baking it so many times I’ve lost count. This was the recipe that changed everything. Now I can successfully make red velvet cake and know it will be a hit every single time.

What went wrong

Let’s get real for a second – red velvet cake is not for the fainthearted. One time my cake turned very brown – too little red food colour. So for my next try I added more food colouring.

That made the batter too runny that I’ve had to scoop the collapsed remnants out of the pan (and straight into the garbage bin).

Don’t even get me started on the cream cheese frosting. First it won’t stiffen to the proper consistency – my cream cheese and butter were always too soft. Or I thought it did, only to find it flowing like soup from within my layers like sweet, white, evil lava (now this is just wrong).

Keys for success

Happily, I’ve gotten over that dark period in my red velvet baking life and can now share two important tips so you can successfully bake red velvet cake too.

Use gel food colour. Stay away from the liquid ones – they are just not red enough so you’d tend to use more which affects the total liquid in your batter (and you’d get a strange aftertaste too).

Measure your ingredients using a kitchen scale if you can. Baking is a science after all. They’re pretty inexpensive and will improve your baking more than any other kitchen gadget (though I think it’s tied with an oven thermometer – also cheap!)

Red velvet cake with ermine frosting

What is it exactly? It’s one of those classic recipes that our grandmas hold near and dear. And it is actually the original icing paired with red velvet cake. It’s essentially flour and milk whisked until the mixture resembles thick pudding. This pudding then becomes the base for your buttercream.

Ermine frosting or boiled milk frosting or roux frosting

It’s called so many names but it’s really the same thing. And what is it like? Light with the consistency of whipped cream. Not too sweet – just the kind that makes you want more. And It works so well with red velvet cake. No wonder they were the OG lol.

Not your typical red velvet cake…better!

This is definitely not the red velvet cake we’re used to but I think I absolutely like this version better. It’s just so unique; hope you give it a try and like it too!

Switch to low speed and add a third of your flour mixture into the batter, then half of your buttermilk, then another third of the flour, the last of the buttermilk, then finally putting in the rest of the flour making sure each addition is fully combined before adding in the next. Scrape the bottom and sides of your bowl as needed.

Add 1 teaspoon vanilla and stir until you see no more streaks of flour in the batter. Remove the bowl from stand mixer, if using.

In a small bowl, mix 1 teaspoon baking soda with 1 teaspoon vinegar. Once the mixture foams and bubbles, quickly fold it into your cake batter.

Pour the batter into your prepared baking pans and bake for 24-30 minutes or until the cakes start to pull away from the sides of the pans and when a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.

Take out from oven and cool on a rack for about 15 minutes or until the pans are cool enough to handle. Then remove the cakes from pans, remove the parchment paper from the cakes and let cool completely on the racks before frosting.

This looks so delicious. I want to make this soon maybe for Valentines. It is awesome that you shared your mistakes and what you learned from it so that we can make hopefully a perfect one just like you did.

Congratulations for mastering this recipe! I’m not sure I can but with your tips I’d definitely give it a try. I wouldn’t say that I love red velvet, but it would be nice to make it for the family or during gatherings!

I love red velvet cake, and with all the baking I’ve done, I’ve never tried to make one before. My husband and I both enjoy it so much our wedding cake was red velvet! I definitely agree that the gel food colors are the way to go, that’s all I will use.

I’ve never tried to bake red velvet cake, I’m sure that the cake would hate me too. This is unique cake, and the color is amazing. I’m glade to hear that you haven’t given up on it. I don’t think I’d try to bake one 😀

Hi Mary! You know. I thought long and hard about this one. Conclusion: it’s really unlike any frosting I’ve ever had. It’s light, not too sweet, awesome texture. It’s indescribable! To taste is to believe. It is absolutely delicious is all I can say!

Thanks for the recipe! I really hopes this one works out for me! And I always thought cream cheese was the original frosting for red velvet cake, but thanks for letting me know what the original frosting is. Thats really helpful!

I had to bake red velvet cakes all the time when I was a baker and we always had so many problems with them! Your frosting is really interesting though, I’ve never used flour in my frosting before so I’d be really interested to see how it tastes. You do make it sound very good though!

So it’s not just me lol! This cake was my nemesis for a very long time. This was the only recipe that worked! It was the first I heard of the frosting too but I read more about it and it turns out it was the original frosting for red velvet, not cream cheese. Interesting huh 🙂 Hope you get a chance to try it and let me know how you like it! Thanks Tess 🙂

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Welcome to The Unlikely Baker!

Hi! I'm Jolina and I'm definitely a late bloomer, a thoroughly unexpected baker. You wouldn't find me in the kitchen as a child. And I have no memories of baking cookies with my grandma. I loved to eat, I just had absolutely no interest in cooking or baking. But now I can’t wait to come home and bake something. I guess life is funny that way. Extraordinary too. READ MORE.